Thursday 30 April 2015

Days out - Bridgemere garden centre

I have not been to Bridgemere garden centre for many years Europe's largest garden centre so when on my way home from my parents. I saw a sign for Bridgemere so I decided to take a detour luckily the girls had not noticed that I had gone on a detour otherwise there would have been a few moans about gong to another garden centre.

Now it is pretty much a normal garden centre cafĂ©, books, plants etc. but what makes Bridgemere different apart from the sheer size of the place is there show garden. The garden covers six acres and you could easily spend several hours just wandering around the show garden. The garden was originally built for the Gardening program Gardeners Diary which I believe was aired in the 1980's. I even found an old episode on You Tube proper old school gardening program teaching how to grow plants.
 If I remember rightly there used to be a booth at the entrance to the show gardens when you had to pay a small fee to get into the garden. Now it is free to get in there is not all the fruit and veg that there was during the TV years but there is defiantly lots to see.
 Although the fruit and veg are no longer there which is a shame the garden was full of glorious spring colour. A couple of the beds where empty waiting to be planted up with this coming summer bedding.
 The garden is also full of lovely clipped box and yew hedging which added lots of colour and shape to the borders.
 One great part of the garden is the fake ruined castle tower which if it was not for being able to see the brick work inside you think it was a real ruin.
 The tower sits well with in the garden especially down below where you get to gaze across all the summer flowers up to the tower.
 The garden is well maintained in fact there was hardly a weed to be seen it will defiantly be worth another trip back in the summer to see how it develops through the season.
Full details can be found on Wyevale's website
Open 9am - 6pm seven days a week

Thursday 23 April 2015

The only orchid i have never killed

Me and house plant don't go well together they generally end up dead within a short space of time. The best successes with house plants to date is the Money tree we have it has even survived several house moves. Although it is a cactus and will happily go weeks with out a water which is probably more the reason it has lived than my horticultural skills. I'm great in the garden but give me a house plant and it is doomed so when we where given a Orchid at the end of last year it was a great plant but I new it would not survive long in my hands.
Orchid came into flower after feeding with Seramis Orchid Plant Food
After we had it a week the first of the flowers started to wilt and it was not long before the flowers had all gone. Soon just the plant was left now this is the point that I have got too with every orchard I have ever grown. I have never managed to get one to flower again until now Westland kindly send me some samples of there new Seramis Orchid fertilizer range. So I gave my poor little Orchid a feed with Seramis Orchid Plant Food and also a spray with Seramis leaf spray after a couple of weeks the plant certainly did look healthier. Then out of no where I noticed a flower shoot coming out of the side of the plant fantastic I thought not only have I not killed the thing but I have managed to bring it back into flower. I am now even tempted to buy a couple more orchids for the house now I know that I can not kill them and also with the help of Seramis even get them to flower again.

Saturday 18 April 2015

Days out - Eden Project

I have wanted to visit Eden for many since it was built but have never got down to that part of the country until now. Cornwall is a long was to go for us it took nearly 6 hours to get down there but was well worth the drive I should point out that we went for the weekend and not a day trip. As we pulled into the entrance the sun was shining although the wind was a bit chilly. Parked the car jumped on the bendy bus that takes you to the entrance there is still a bit of a walk from where you are dropped off but it is all under cover. I managed to pick up a discount voucher from the holiday park where we stayed giving us 15% off the entrance price bonus. There is a viewing platform as you enter the garden that gives you a full view of the Biomes they are very impressive and sit well in there surroundings following the shape of the surrounding land. Knowing that it was only gong to get hotter during the day we headed straight to the tropical biome. It is like stepping into another country as you enter the biome it's only when you get the occasional clips of the roof that you remember that you are in a great big greenhouse.

It's also bigger than you think inside we where walking around for nearly an hour there are lots of really great plants to look at. Every thing from Bananas to coffee trees as it was Easter there was lots of chocolate displays to keep the children happy. Coco trees and some very helpful staff on hand to answer all your chocolate related questions the only person who was missing was Willy Wonker him self. after a trip round the tropics we decided to go on to the Mediterranean lucky it was only next door and no plane ride needed. I will say that as soon as you walk into the Mediterranean biome you are hit with the lovely small of the cooking coming from the restaurant inside the biome. It's a shame we had just had lunch as the food looked great it was just like being in the Mediterranean. 
There was a great collection of citrus giving off some wonderful scent in the middle of the biome this is where we sat for a while. Listening to the story teller telling the tale of a button and the kings Tylor which the girls enjoyed listening too. There was so much around the garden for children to do especially in the stage area there was a egg hunt, egg shy, hook an egg etc. as well as face painting so we ended up taking home a tiger as well. It was an all round excellent day out for the family that I would recommend to anyone who is visiting that part of the country.
 
for full detail visit there website :- www.edenproject.com

Wednesday 15 April 2015